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Arelian
Classification and Dialects Arelian (Arelex) is an a priori, tripartite, engineerined language with fluid parts of speech; only one morpheme in a word determines part of speech, and words can be freely converted between nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, participles, and even pronouns. Prepositions play a large role in the language, and are the only indicator of grammatical case, aside from context. Phonology Consonants Vowels In addition to these vowels, there are two diphthongs -- /ai/ and /ʌu/ Phonotactics Writing System Two pronunciations simply indicates allophony to conform to surrounding sounds. The only diacritic used is ā ē ī ō ū which indicates a long, stressed vowel. Grammar Nouns Nouns in Arelian decline to case and number, as shown below. There are only two declension classes of nouns, which are not analogous at all. There are also few irregular ones. Class I (-ex) Class one nouns are the ones that exist already as nouns. Class II (-ic) Class two nouns are the ones that originally existed as other parts of speech but were then formed as nouns. Irregular Nouns The following is a list of irregular nouns and their forms, listed in the following order: OBL singular, OBL plural, PREP singular, PREP plural *Lektiz - thing **Lektiz **Lektici **Lektice **Lekticje Verbs There is only one verb conjugation class, with a few irregulars (all common intransitive verbs). In addition to tense and mood, verbs conjugate to the following subjects *First person singular *First person dual inclusive (you and I) *First person plural *Second person *Third person singular *Third person plural 'What Do I Conjugate To?' Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the Arelian language is that it doesn't exhibit a tendency to any specific morphosyntactic alignment. Instead, one argument to a verb (can be the subject, direct object, or indirect object...doesn't really matter) retains the oblique case, while the other arguments take the prepositional and the preposition that preceedes them determines their role in the sentence. ' '''When conjugating the main verb of a clause, ''the verb inflects to the argument in the absolute case, which, as previously mentioned, can be anything. Therefore, it's important to watch for which noun / pronoun is in the oblique and which are in the prepositional, as it can completely change the direction of the sentence. Frequently (and this is just by convention rather than a rule of the language), the agent of a transitive verb and the subject of an intransitive verb take the absolute, similarly to nominative-accusative languages. Infinitive Mood The most basic of any verb form, the infinitives of verbs in Arelian end in either -at or -ov. Unlike other parts of speech, the -at and -ov endings don't have anything to do with whether or not the verb was derived from another part of speech, and in all other moods the verb forms are identical. Realis Mood The realis mood is quite broad, and actually includes a few irrealis moods (oops). It corresponds to the English indicative, subjunctive, and conditional, with the conditional functioning more as a tense in Arelian (since it also exists in the imperative mood). The present/future subjunctive is conjugated as the Future, and the past subjunctive is conjugated as the Conditional. In the Realis, 1pi is conjugated as 1p Imperative Mood There are only two tenses in the imperative mood, and they both conjugate only in the 1di and 2 forms. In this mood, 1pi is conjugated as 1di (you and I). Adjectives Arelian adjectives have three inflection classes. Class A consists of original adjectives and adverbs, Class B consists of adjectives formed from Class I nouns, and Class C consists of adjectives formed from verbs and/or Class II nouns. Class A Class B Xjonarazex - Electricity Xjonarazel - Electric Class C Knazat - to see Knazic - vision Knazal - visual Pronouns Pronouns in Arelian are quite simple, since they don't have case other than ABS and PREP. However, there's a almost full table of correlatives. This table is far more complete than English, but significantly more empty than Esperanto. The following is a list of personal/object pronouns (keep in mind that there's no distinction). The table of correlatives is located here, nice and color coded. Arelian Correlatives Adverbs Adverbs in Arelian are quite simple and are created simply by using the -o ending on the base form of the word. There are no classes to worry about. Prepositions Prepositions play more of a role in the grammar of Arelian than they do in most other languages, and simple prepositions can be used to convey relatively complex evidentiality clauses, among other things. The following is a list of prepositions used in the language along with some of the most common prepositional phrases (in bold). Sometimes, prepositional phrases can imply a verb and form a whole sentence where there isn't one. *Case **Al - Ergative **Et - Accusative **Zan - Absolutive **Rod - Genitive / Posessive / "by" **Lan - Dative **Cit - Instrumental **Rel - Locative *Evidentiality **Krol ___ ***Krol Zerelicj - Sensory is felt" ****'Krol gli zerelicj - "As was felt"' ****'Krol plari zerelicj - "As will be felt"' ***Krol Knazicj - Visual Sensory / Witness is seen" ****'Krol gli knazicj - "As was seen"' ****'Krol plari knazicj - "As will be seen"' ***Krol Pliforicj - Inferential / Assumed is assumed" ****'Krol gli pliforicj - "As was assumed"' ****'Krol plari pliforicj - "As will be assumed"' ***Krol Spericj - Heresay (verbal) is said" ****'Krol gli spericj - "As was said"' ****'Krol plari spericj - "As will be said"' ***Krol Kjolericj - Heresay (written) is written" ****'Krol gli kjolericj - "As was written"' ****'Krol plari kjolericj - "As will be written"' *Mirativity **Klon ___ ***'Klon vaigicj - "Expectedly"' ****For instance, Ovorirōz, klon vaigicj, rod Isi "It will happen as she expects it to." ***'Klon dek vaigicj - "Unexpectedly"' ****'''For instance, '''Ni Inqusite, klon gli dek vaigicj, rod Ey "I didn't expect The Spanish Inquisition." (though there are simpler, shorter ways to say this) *Volition **Flad ___ ***'Flad vaigicj - "Intentionally"' ****For instance, Ovorod, flad gli vaigicj, rod Isi "It happened, like she had intended" ***'Flad dek vaigicj - "Intentionally"' *Comparison **Cjid - More than **Kjid - Less than **Vrid - The Same As Syntax Conversion Each word, regardless of part of speech, contains a base form with the part of speech ending specific to it. The following are all the endings for every part of speech. *Nouns **ex **ēx **e **ē **ic **ice **icj **icje *Verbs **Infinitive ***at ***ov **Realis ***Past ****aīd ***Present ****as ****ais ****us ****ez ****oz ***Future ****irag ****iraīg ****irug ****irez ****iroz ***Conditional ****axj ****aixj ****uxj ****exj ****oxj **Imperative ***Future ****en ****aīn ****ev ****aīv *Adjectives **i **ī **el **ēl **al **il *Adverbs **o Alignment and Case Arelian uses a tripartite alignment where ergative, accusative, and absolutive cases are marked with prepositions. In any given clause, one noun will be unmarked while the rest are. Therefore, the absolutive is rarely marked because it's often the only argument in a phrase. However, since the unmarked noun can be of any case, there are exceptions. For instance, in the sentence "I ran to him", one could mark "I" for the absolutive while leaving "him" unmarked. Negation Arelian's system of negation involves three different negation particles, representing two different functions: *Dek - INVERTS a noun, adjective, or adverb. *Qaz - NEGATES a verb. *Dekzi - INVERTS a verb. Inversion simply reverses the meaning. Therefore, "good" becomes "bad", "to like" becomes "to dislike", etc. Negation, on the other hand, simply expresses that something is not the case. For instance, INVERTING the sentence "I like her" yields "I dislike her", while NEGATING the sentence gives "I don't like her I don't necessarily dislike her" Lexicon Example text Category:Languages